


To Be Valued

by TheGirlWithBrightEyes



Series: The Crooked Smile [3]
Category: Takin' Over the Asylum
Genre: Bipolar Disorder, Books, Comfort, Friendship, Hospitalization, Mental Health Issues, Mental Institutions, Reading Aloud, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 04:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21368083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGirlWithBrightEyes/pseuds/TheGirlWithBrightEyes
Summary: Fergus offers to read out loud to Campbell, who is unable to focus on letters in a book. The offer is received with much more enthusiasm than anticipated.
Relationships: Campbell Bain & Fergus MacKinnon
Series: The Crooked Smile [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1487243
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	To Be Valued

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文-普通话 國語 available: [【翻译】To Be Valued](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21900319) by [mally5440](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mally5440/pseuds/mally5440)

> This is a rather short one, but it has been growing on my mind lately. I've been wondering why Campbell seemed so well educated while his father claims he never finished school, and I was also wondering at some of his choice of words - he can lapse into sounding terribly old fashioned so I figured he would have read some fairly old books. Then it struck me that perhaps he isn't the one reading and the idea was so sweet I had to put it down.
> 
> It's considerably less angsty than the first two.

Although Campbell tended to lapse into brooding episodes where he was upset that his parents had locked him up and missed home, he was gradually learning to what it was like to live at ward 11. Of course, Campbell getting the right diagnosis didn't mean there was magic at work. It took a few months before they got the doses right, during which he was fairly unstable and they still gave him sleeping aids to get through the nights. Every time they changed the dose there was a period where Campbell was slightly out of it and didn't feel very well, but between those occasions he was rather talkative. There was, however, a distressing lack of things to occupy themselves with according to him.

"You read a lot?" Campbell asked a few weeks into his internment, squatting beside Fergus bedside table, thumbing the old soft cover books stacked there. They weren't allowed hard covers in case someone decided to throw them on a whim. Anyone at the receiving end of a large book through the air knew it hurt. "What's this stuff? Woah, these are _old_!"

"Yeah," Fergus wandered over, looking down on Campbell. He leaned down, plucking the volume Campbell was holding from his hands. "There's not a lot to choose from in the library," he said a bit wistfully, gazing at the dog eared, worn book feeling slightly sorry for it.

"Wish I had the patience," Campbell sighed, scrunching his nose up. "But it's like I'm sort of not _built_ for reading. Feels like I'm missing out because there's so much books out there and most I've looked at have been really interesting but I just _can't_." Fergus looked down on him then back at the book.

"Would it work if I was reading to you?" he asked and almost instantly regretted it, because they were trigger words. Campbell went instantly from fairly calm to shooting up from the floor like the cork out of a champagne bottle, practically beaming.

"Yes! Yes! That would be absolutely awesome!" he practically shouted, flinging himself at Fergus with so much enthusiasm he almost knocked him over making him drop the book he'd been holding with a thud. The hug was over as fast as it had come, making Fergus feel like he'd been dipped in cold waters. He was so shell shocked he barely heard the incoherent string of babble erupting from Campbell in his excitement. "I'll go choose a book to begin with!" he finally cheered and disappeared out from the room leaving Fergus feeling rather dizzy.

Fergus had expected Campbell to return right away, but the boy remained absent most of the afternoon until it was dinnertime. Curious and slightly worried what exactly he'd accidentally set off, Fergus wandered over to what he'd earlier quite generously referred to as 'the library'. It was in actuality three bookcases filled with donated books.

"Fergus!" Campbell called out excitedly the moment he saw him, a happy smile on his face. Fergus stared. It looked like Campbell had pulled out every single book out of the bookcases and spread them out on the floor in haphazard heaps.

"It's dinnertime. What are you doing...?"he asked carefully, slightly afraid this was another land mine to step on. Campbell bounced off the floor, flinging his arms out.

"Sorting!" he exclaimed and set off describing a complicated sorting scheme with such enthusiasm that Fergus didn't have the heart to point out that libraries usually just filed them alphabetically and that no one else but Campbell would be able to find anything once he was done. "It'll be great! Did you say dinner? Come on!" And he was off, leaving the mess of books - and Fergus, behind. Wondering what exactly just happened, Fergus wheeled around to follow him and found Campbell halfway through the corridor on his way back to fetch him.

\---

After dinner Campbell went back to his sorting, for lack of a better term, and didn't turn up until he'd been shooed back to their room to get his sleeping aid. He rather surprised Fergus by brandishing a book - he'd felt sure it would take him at least a week before he'd made up his mind which one he wanted to have read to him.

"Treasure Island?" Fergus raised his eyebrows as he read the title, glancing up on Campbell who was gulping down the water he'd been given by the nurse.

"Aye!" Campbell said happily, wiping his mouth with a wide grin that made fondness bloom in Fergus chest. He snorted then allowed himself to smile, shrugging.

"All right."

As they settled down he glanced over to see if he had Campbell's attention. They boy was looking expectantly at him, face lit up faintly by the lamp beside Fergus bed.

"_The Old Sea-dog at the 'Admiral Benbow',_" Fergus started, realising that this was the first time he ever read something more advanced than a newspaper clipping to anyone. It was a peculiar feeling. "_Quire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen..._"he continued, now and then glancing up to see if Campbell was still listening, unable to keep a smile off his face at the rapture of the boy as the story slowly started to unfold.

Fergus soon learned that Campbell would hold out some twenty minutes before falling asleep, but these twenty minutes every evening were purely dedicated to him reading aloud to him. They'd started with Treasure Island and moved through the classics, Campbell taking Fergus completely by surprise by more or less memorising everything he read to him. Although he had suspected the boy to be fairly bright, Campbell proved to be quite a bit more than that, quoting things he'd only heard once with fervour during tea. The more he read to him, the wider Campbell's babbling repertoire became as well and Fergus could really appreciate how much the boy grew before his eyes. He had the potential to shine if given the chance.

It was a fact that left Fergus with a heavy feeling in his chest when he turned the light off after Campbell had fallen asleep. It felt like such a waste to have him locked up in here. All the same, the same could be said about Fergus himself, a fact that often bubbled up in his darkest hours, but it felt all the more crushing since Campbell was so young.

Still, he realised with surprise, it felt wonderful to be able to do something for someone that was so wholly appreciated as reading books loud to a kid that wasn't able to himself. To feel needed and valued by someone again.


End file.
